A rare Tintin illustration from “Tintin in America” sold for 753,000 euros (costs included) at Artcurial in Paris on Saturday, the auction house announced.
Hergé did the original drawing (21 x 15 cm) in Chinese ink, and colour was added layer by layer. It is one of four non-text colour drawings from the 1937 black and white album. It was estimated at between 600,000 and 700,000 euros.
It shows Tintin with a revolver in his right hand, standing on the footrest of a fast-moving taxi. He is in a Chicago street being chased by baddies.
“The price was very close to the 2015 record” (another non-text drawing sold for 770,600 euros) says Eric Leroy, the Artcurial comic book expert.
A non-text drawing is a large colour drawing with no speech bubbles, which are added to black and white Tintin albums to liven them up, Mr Leroy explained. Hergé’s non-text drawings are very rarely up for sale.
The non-text drawing sold on Saturday was bought by “a European buyer”, Artcurial said in a press release.
A Hergé drawing from 1942 done for Le Soir, which shows the reporter dusting for prints and Capitan Haddock brandishing a sabre, sold for 67,600 euros (costs included). That’s “a record” for that type of illustration, says Mr Leroy.
Artcurial says more than 80% of the lots available at the auction were sold.
